cookies

Kissingers: a healthier version

/ lolitabopaa / Leave a comment

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Kissingers. My grandma has been making them since I remember. There isn’t Christmas without them. No one in our family actually knows where my grandma got the recipe or why they’re called that way. So as far as I managed to find out, they’re originally from Bavaria, Germany.

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Anyway, this is my healthier version, but for my grandmother’s sake I’m also adding an original recipe:

150 g wheat flour (white)
150 g ground hazelnuts
150 g sugar
100 g butter
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 egg

apricot jam
chocolate and hazelnuts to garnish

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Ingredients:

  • 185 g wholegrain spelt flour
  • 150 g ground hazelnuts
  • 60 g agave syrup
  • 100 g butter
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 egg
  • 100 g dried apricots
  • juice of 1 big orange
  • 60 g dark chocolate (70%)
  • ground hazelnuts to garnish

Preparation:

  1. Mix flour, hazelnuts, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Add butter and combine evenly with your hands. Whisk egg and agave syrup. Add to flour mixture. The dough will be rather soft. Form a ball and let sit for 20-30 mins in a fridge.
  2. Roughly chop apricots, pour over orange juice and mix with hand blender to get a jam consistency.
  3. Take the dough out of the fridge and roll it in-between two sheets of parchment paper to 4 mm thick. use a round cookie cutter or a jar to cut out circles.
  4. Bake at 180ºc for 12 mins or until golden brown.
  5. Let cool. Make cookie sandwiches by spreading apricot jam in-between the two cookies.
  6. Melt chocolate and dip in the edges. Immediately roll in ground hazelnuts.
  7. Leave cookies in a tin box for at least two days before serving & eating.

 

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Cranberry and pistachio oat cookies

/ lolitabopaa / 1 Comment

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Cranberries and pistachios. Red and green. Christmas par excellence.

Ingredients:

  • 150 g rolled oats
  • 50 g butter or coconut oil
  • 1,5 tsp baking powder
  • 70 – 100 g water
  • 30 g peeled salted pistachios
  • 50 g dried cranberries
  • chocolate to garnish

Preparation:

  1. Roughly chop cranberries and pistachios.
  2. Finely grind rolled oats into a flour consistency.
  3. Mix oats and baking powder. Add butter (or coconut oil fi using) and evenly mix with hands. Add nuts and cranberries.
  4. Add water, mix and let sit. Oats will soak up. It it gets too dry, add a bit more water.
  5. Make small balls and form a thin cookie. Bake at 180º for 20-30 mins depending on thickness. Let cool and garnish with melted chocolate.

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Last minute DIY Christmas gifts

/ lolitabopaa / 5 Comments

 

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Work. Work. Work. This has been my mantra for the last month. Somehow all the things managed to collide at the same time. I realized it’s almost Christmas and that I’m still missing half of the christmas gifts for my friends, because the only time I was serious about getting them, there were so many people on the way to the mall, that I just made a turn and didn’t even see the shops.

Giving and receiving. The more you give, the more you will receive, they say. It’s true. It doesn’t have to be much. It’s more about the story and it’s more about making them on your own. Little things made with love.

…and in the end… practical gifts are pretty cool.
(Except pajamas. 10 years in a row. But who can blame them grannies…)

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So here are some pretty nice, pretty good and pretty healthy DIY Christmas gifts.
Or maybe just treats for the Christmas morning…

 

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Vanilla & Earl Grey fig cookies

/ lolitabopaa / Leave a comment

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This cookies were actually inspired by one of Sarah Britton’s recipes. She’s one of my favorite blogger and her fig newtons were the first thing that drew my attention to her blog. My recipe came out as a result of falling in love with oat crackers.

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They’re really simple to make, without any added sugar since figs are already sweet enough and made out of whole grains. I tried making them both with butter and with coconut oil. The butter pastry was easier to work with, but it turned out to be more compact and dry when baked. The coconut version vas more hard to work with. It was more crumbly and there were occasional cracks. But baked, those cookies were delish. Despite those cracks, they did hold together and they looked gorgeous. So I opt for vegan. Coconut.

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Ingredients:

Pastry

  • 200 g rolled oats
  • 45 g coconut oil
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 50 – 70 g water

Filling

  • 140 g figs
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract or 1 vanilla pod
  • 2 Tbsp cognac or spiced rum
  • 2 teabags of Earl Grey in 1,5 dl water
  • 3 tsp chia seeds

Preparation:

  1. Prepare the fig filling. Pour 1,5 dl water on 2 teabags of Earl Gray. Let infuse for 3-4 mins. Chop figs in quarters. Pour over tea and let sit for 15 mins. Using a hand blender mix well in a smooth paste. Add vanilla, chia and cognac and let infuse.
  2. Grind rolled oats in flour consistency using a food processor or a coffee grinder.
  3. Add baking powder and salt.
  4. Add coconut fat to oat mixture and combine evenly with your fingers.
  5. Add 50 g water. Add more if necessary, it depends on the oats. Mix with a wooden spoon and let sit for 10 – 15 mins. Do consider that oats will soak up and adding more water might be necessary if too dry.
  6. Kneed the pastry. Make a ball and put it in-between two sheets of parchment paper. Roll the pastry 0,5 cm thick.
  7. Make a rectangle at least 12 cm wide. Cut off excess. Generously add fig filling in the middle. Fold both sides and seal (spread some water on the pastry, it will act as a glue). If the dough cracks while folding, don’t worry, the filling will hold it together.
  8. Cut the roll on small rectangles.
  9. Bake at 180ºc for 30 mins or until golden brown.
  10. Cookies will be at their best two days later!

 

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